Several Raptor pilots engage in a little sparring match with the pilots from Linebacker Flight in the realm of sim-space.

Date:

2659.109

Related Logs:

A Not So Friendly Game of Football

Participants:

Paz James Walsh Phillip

Captain William Cheswick and Lieutenants Helen Martin and Amber Amrita are chatting away near the simpods. They are all dressed in the usual casual ware of a pilot. Captain Cheswick (Firewall) is a 30 year old male with short-cut yet still bushy dark hair and a round face. He is fit but not overly muscular and 5'10" in height. First Lt. Helen Martin(Hellfire) is a 25 year old, 5'7" female with short-cut blonde hair and a slightly muscular figure. Second Lieutenant Amber Amrita (Elixir) is a 23 year old brunette at 5'5" and with distinctly Egyptian features and a lean form.

Paz gives a polite nod to Cheswick and the other pilots as she makes her way into the sim room. "Evening, folks.", she says amiably. "Ready to ride the wild software?"

Phillip enters the ridiculously familiar simulator room. It has become an almost intimate familiarity due to the large amount of simulator time mandated by Col. Taylor on a certain three pilots. Phillip looks around a nods to the other pilots in the room.

Walsh walks in, and casts a suspicious glare towards the simulator control pod. He nods to Phillip, and follows with an exaggerated eyeroll. He looks to Paz with a slightly sheepish expression, "Shame the software's been riding -us- lately." His eyes linger in her direction, then he turns to greet the other pilots.

The Raptor pilots turn their heads and wave to the incoming pilots. Cheswick speaks up first somewhat jestingly, "It's about time Tizona. I was beginning to wonder if you guys were using patrol duty as an excuse to get out of our challenge." Amrita gives a slight giggle at Walsh's sim-ward glare. Martin speaks up next looking toward the pilots just entering. "So are we ready to begin?" she asks with a slight eagerness in her voice.

"No, we've just been a bit busy doing our jobs." Paz replies with a friendly grin. "Well, we are," she notes, nodding a bit. "After you, Captain," she says, giving a bit of a bow to her fellow officer.

Phillip looks around his immediate space and doesn't spy James. He turns his head toward the Conquistador pilots, "Looks like we missing one of our fellows?"

James wanders in and looks around before making his way towards the others still wearing a somewhat rumpled flight suit and sipping from a bottle. "Sorry there was a slight glitch in the software for the landing systems and it took a little while to sort out."

Walsh nods to James as he makes his entrance. "Ack. Business as usual, huh?" he says. To the group in general, he says, "You don't mind if we run this one in debug mode? The sims seem to be awfully brutal to us in particular, all of a sudden…" He lets the implication sink in on its own.

Amrita responds to Phillip, "Actually, weren't there supposed to be 5 of you?" Martin looks back at her fellow pilot, and says somewhat softly but with exasperation, "Did you not read of the communiqués, he's on patrol duty for the next 3 hours." Helen Martin then looks back toward the door and spots James, "Ah yes, here is the last one now." She then says to all gathered, "Let's get going shall we. Us Conquistadors," she begins instructing and pointing toward the various pods in the room, "are in pods 1 through 3 while the Minutemen are in 4 and 5. The Illuminati will take the 6 and 7." She then heads over to sim pod 2 while directing Amrita toward sim pod 3."

Paz shoots Walsh a bit of a look, then nods her head and makes for sim pod number four. "Sounds good. Let's kick the artificial tires and light the artificial fires, folks," she says, clambering inside.

Phillip nods at James as he enters, "Seems that is happening more and more." "And yeah I am starting to wonder about the simulators. They may be wearing out," he says toward Walsh with a bit of chuckle before heading toward sim pod 5 and hopping in. "This Hellfire chick sure seems rather bossy," Phillip thinks to himself.

James makes his way towards simulator number 6 and slides into it carefully smiling at what Paz says before strapping himself into the seat and sealing the pod.

"Alrighty. Let's do this." Walsh says as he walks over to pod 7 and prepares for 'launch'.
The three Raptor pilots head into their pods. The combat simulation then activates. Three Raptors are set about 15000 klicks away from the two Rapiers and two Stilettos with Captain Cheswick (aka Firewall) radioing first, «Okay as per our challenge, its Raptors versus you motley bunch. On my mark we will move to engage each other. Let me know when your flight is ready Tizona and feel free to use a different channel.»

«Firewall, Tizona, copy that.» Paz replies simply. «Motley Flight, switch to Alternate Two for team comms.» she adds, setting her radio to one of a dozen pre-selected channels.

«Flight, Lead, listen up boys, know you guys have had a rough time of it in here lately, and that's that. But tonight, let's kick these morons' teeth in.» she says flatly. «Iceblade, no heroics, everybody stay with your wingman and maintain fire discipline. Any questions?»

Phillip settles in and detects the three Raptors. "Well this should be very interesting," Phillip says as he cues up his Image Recognition missiles. His sim-Rapier sits motionless at the moment waiting for the go ahead from Firewall. Iceblade then switches comm frequencies, «Roger that Tizona, channels switched.» Iceblade then listens to Tizona's instructions, «Understood, ready and rearing to go Motley Lead.»

James nods and opens his commline «Stay on my wing Ozone, and feel free to start with the missiles. I think I might have an idea.» He flicks his own weapons selection over to missiles and waits for the fun to begin.

Walsh buckles up and switches his comms over. «Amen to that, Tizona. Bring on the tooth fairy!» He runs a quick check of his systems to ensure nobody's left him a nasty surprise. «Copy, Cutlass. Good to go.»

«Firewall, Tizona, Motley Flight is five by five. You can start the sim any time now.» Paz radios.

«Roger that Tizona….Mark!» Firewall radios. His flight of Raptors then start moving in a full speed without afterburners. They are moving in as one. Seconds slowly pass the two groups close. As they get within missile range, all three Raptors fire off their Image Recognition missiles simultaneously at the Motley flight of Rapiers and Stilettos before splitting up to evade incoming missiles.

«Motley Flight, lead, copy that. Keep your eyes open and don't let 'em get behind you if you can help it.» she adds, firing up the seeker head on her imrec and scanning for an imrec. Just before she's able to get a lock, her threat receivers scream a warning to her. "Just a few more seconds…" she says tensely, painting Firewall's Raptor until it's solid before calling «Tizona, Fox 2» and popping her own chaff and flare package.

Phillip begins moving his fighter alongside Tizona's and focuses in one of the opposing Raptors with an imrec. Closing, closing, locking on. PING! «Iceblade, Fox 2!» He radios as he sends off the imrec while remaining somewhat cautious in his approa.. BEEP BEEP BEEP, the missile alarm goes off. Iceblade immediately begins maneuvering to avoid the incoming missile throwing out a bit of chaff.

James says, «Ok Ozone swing around and try to catch them in the flank while they are focused on the rest of us.» To encourage that focus James settles his sights over the nose of the Raptor coming towards him and fires the instant he has tone «Cutlass Fox 2!» before beginning to weave in an attempt to evade the incoming fire.

"Three of them, four of us, and my threat warning's not going nuts. Guess I'm a free agent." Walsh thinks as the furball begins. «Copy, Cutlass.» he replies. He throws forward the throttle and breaks off at an angle towards the Raptor flight's flanks.

As the missiles approach, both Paz and Phillip take serious damage with Paz's Rapier missing its right wing and Phillip's neutrons cannon torn to shreds and unusable. In addition both Rapier's missiles fly off doing nothing while the Stilettos deal some serious damage to the rookie Raptor pilot who in turning found mass driver rounds from James taking Elixir's rear armor off making way for smooth penetration by Walsh's missile…one of three heatseekers Walsh has. «Ship coming apart, ejecting.» Elixir radios before going into a simulated ejection. Both remaining Raptors come about to take on the Stilettos. Loosing their last imrecs.

"Fuck!" Paz snarls, frantically scanning the ship's damage control panel as she attempts to get her thrusters under control. "Okay, puta, you got first blood….Props for that." she growls, feeling her blood turn red hot in her veins. "Now, let's see what you do with this…" she says, firewalling her throttle and switching to Dumbfires. «Flight, Lead, I'm hit pretty bad but I'm not out of the fight.» she reports, feet tapping madly against the thruster pedals to line up for a second shot at Firewall. «Tizona…Fox two!»

Iceblade's chaff couldn't fool the enemy missile and the missile lands right on Phillip's nose taking out his neutron guns. "Jeez that is not good," Phillip says as he checks diagnostics. «Iceblade here, neutrons are toast.» At least the Raptors have given up on the Rapiers for now. "Bad mistake Mr. Raptor." Phillip pulls his fighter around to take on the lead Raptor with Tizona. "Try avoiding two dumbfires up the tailpipe." Phillip says as cues up dumbfires and fires one at Firewall's engines.

James smiles as his and Walsh's target comes apart until he notices the hits on the Rapiers and winces, the expression growing more grim when he sees the Raptor pilots new plan. After making sure his weapon selection is on missiles this time he begins maneuvering for a tail shot on his tormentor while call «Walsh go evasive.» over the comm followed shortly by «Fox 2!>

Being completely unimpeded, Walsh is easily able to loop back behind the opposing formation for what effectively amounts to a free kill. Well, free in the sense that -he- didn't have to work for it. Unfortunately, his egress takes him into the forward sector of two Conquistadors who suddenly have no targets. Sensing his mistake, he peels off, trying to evade, even before the call from James comes through. He acknowledges with a simple double-click. That insistent beeping doesn't inspire confidence…

With all the missiles after him, Firewall attempts to evade throwing off his missile's angle. He still manages to avoid getting too much damage, but Phillip got a lucky strike right in the Raptor's engines. «Nice shooting whoever that was, but now you are dead.» Firewall radios with some annoyance; probably at himself before coming around onto the tail of the healthier Rapier, which belongs to Phillip at this moment. As for Hellfire, well even without anybody attacking her, she couldn't get a missile hit in. Hellfire switches to guns and focuses on the pesky Stiletto pilot Walsh. «Now hold still, little fly; I won't hurt you» she radios with false sweetness.

Paz growls as her next shot goes wide thanks to a little fancy footwork from Firewall combined with a lack of it on her part. "Oh come /on/!" she sighs shaking her head a little as she doggedly stays on target. «Flight Lead, good shot, Iceblade. That got his attention.» she calls, flipping to guns and hoping there's something to this whole 'spray and pray' theory. «Tizona's coming in hot!» she says, then depresses the double triggers.

«You seem to be losing your touch.» Iceblade taunts at Firewall as he attempts to evade his new tail. Phillip switches to Friend or Foes and lets one loose.

James evades the missile coming toward him then smiles as the lock on warnings cut out. He snap turns and bores in on Firewall settling his sights over the enemy leader's engines. «Very big mistake, and Cutlass Fox 2» he says as he launches another missile.

After a quick bit of frenzied evasion, the missile aimed at Walsh flies wide, the noise in his cockpit dying down soon afterward. By his count, that's expended their Imrecs. «Whatever you say… Backfire.» he replies to the taunt. He's still got an angry Raptor looking at him funny, but they're not as maneuverable as a missile.

«Oh yeah» Firewall radios back at Phillip as he locks on a heatseeker before adding, «Well let me just show you…» but as he fires that missile, several more come at him, which he attempts to evade. Unfortunately for him, James succeeds in a hit to engine, knocking Mr. Firewall out. «You guys are goo…» he radios before the screen cuts out due to death of the fighter.

Hellfire still finding her query too flighty misses completely only to have the nimble Stiletto turn around send a few mass drivers kisses her way as the Stiletto passes her by, «Hey don't you just kiss and run.» Unfortunately with the Captain out of action, she is forced to consider other targets. She cues up a heatseeker and goes for an easy kill. She locks onto Paz and fires its off at the rather unwieldy one-winged Rapier.

«Nice shot, Cutlass!» Paz grins, so happy to see Firewall go down she doesn't seem to mind missing. «Okay, Motley Flight, three down, one to go.» she announces proudly, then blanches as her threat receivers scream an alert. «You'll have to take the bitch, 'cause I'm gonna be busy.» she says, then immediately goes into the wildest gyrations she can muster with what's left of her Rapier!

"Dang that really seemed to have gotten his attention…perfect!" Phillip says as he runs from the Raptor, deftly evades its missile, and spots one less red dot in the sky from its destruction. «Alright one to go» Phillip radios his flight as he comes around onto the remaining Raptor, cuing up his last dumbfire for a quick cockpit kill. Closing, closing, and missile away. «Here's a doozy of a kiss for ya.» Phillip radios to the Raptor pilot as the dumbfire closes on the Raptor.

James manages to fight the urge to comm an "I told you so" to Firewall though he does whisper it as he swings towards the tail of the last enemy Raptor. After a few moments a call of «Cutlass Fox 2!» can be heard over the commline.

Flying head-on at a heavy fighter in a Stiletto isn't recommended. But following doctrine and common sense only get you so far. Just as long as you're not stupid enough to maintain straight-and-level when you try it. As such, Hellfire took hits, and Walsh didn't. «Guess you weren't lying; you -didn't- hurt me. How's the canopy?» As he speaks, he's already turning around for another pass. «Oh, and wrong target, bitch.» He adds, without much thought.

Well Phillip's warning helped Hellfire dodge his missile but threw off her missile's launch angle. Rounds from Walsh and a heetseeker from James tear into the Raptor, which starts to fall apart. «Damn, you got me. This thing is coming apart, strangely. Ejecting.» Hellfire radios.

Paz can't resist the urge, and switches to the communal channel. «And /that/, gentlemen, is how we do that.» she grins smugly as she brings her badly wounded bird around for a low-consumption route in to the simulated traffic pattern. «Majestic, Tizona, Motley Flight Three, Conquistadors, Nil..» she reports smugly. «LSO, be advised, I've got serious damage to my starboard wing. I'm maintaining flight envelope, but it's taking some work. Better break out the barriers when I come in for the trap.»

"Dang missed," Phillip says as he flies past the damaged and getting worse Raptor. As Phillip pulls around to latch on an imrec to the Raptor, he hears the pilot eject. «Wow, we all made it…barely. Ugh, Tizona you do remember we are in a simulator right.» Phillip radios. When the simulation ends, Phillip stretches a bit before cracking open the pod and getting out.

James climbs out of his simulator pod with an amused expression on his face shaking his head slightly at Paz's antics, "Am I the only one who finds the fact that the killing blow on each heavy fighter was scored by a light fighter ironic?"

The last Raptor, predictably dogpiled, comes apart in short order. As the vidscreens wink out into darkness, Walsh stands and stretches before climbing out of the pod for what seems like the thousandth time this week. "Fat bastard Raptors can't hit us and can't evade us." he says to James. Then, as his brain catches up with his mouth and registers his 'wrong target' comment, he is suddenly apprehensive that someone caught the subtext.

«Majestic, Tizona, you are cleared for approach, call the ball. Barrier deployed. » Paz's radio squelches. «Majestic, Tizona, on approach.» she says, having finally learned to finesse the thruster pedals a little to compensate for not having a wing. «LSO, Tizona, I have the ball, entering glideslope.» Slowly, gingerly, Paz brings her wounded bird in four a near-letter perfect landing, skids coming smoothly to a stop many meters before the barrier. "Aces." she grins, then kills her pod's feed, climbing out with a grin like a Cheshire cat.

Two of the Conquistadors have already gotten out and are looking toward the other pilots as Cheswick finally exits pod 1. Cheswick speaks up first toward Motley flight, "Damn fine bit of teamwork you guys pulled off in there." "And Tizona, nice landing," he says cheekily at Paz."

"Now who was it that buzzed my canopy," Helen Martin says harshly with sharp eyes looking toward the two Stiletto pilots.

"Gracias, Firewall." Paz replies with a shit-eating grin plastered to her face, moving to offer her hand to the man. "Good flying out there, by the by." she notes, still smiling.

"Thanks," Phillip says and walks over to shake the hands of the Raptor pilots.

James doesn't reply to Helen's question instead joining Philip in moving towards and offering his hand to the Raptor pilots.

Walsh cheers for Paz's landing, then shrugs in Helen's direction. "Bet the thing you least expected was a frontal attack, right? Nothing personal, of course."

Cheswick and Amrita grin at the other pilots and shake their offered hands. Martin however walks straight over to Walsh and saying rather angrily while pointing her finger in his face, "I know that you were taunting an opponent in the middle of combat, but if I catch you calling any Confed pilot a bitch again, there will be a reckoning."

"Excuse me?" Paz says, making her way towards Martin. "I don't think I heard you correctly. Were you just threatening someone under my command?" she asks, quirking up and eyebrow and starting to grin in that certain, dangerous way that anyone who knows her understands in the prelude to chaos. "Because, and I'm not saying you were." she adds, holding up a hand. "I'd have to remind you that taunts are a tradition in ACM." she says simply, then smiles again. "That would be Aerospace Combat Maneuvering, just in case you've forgotten." she notes with a wink. "Thicken your skin, /Lieutenant/." she says, spitting the woman's rank like an epithet. "The Fuzzy Wuzzies are gonna call you a sh…" she begins to say, then covers her mouth in mock dismay. "My word, /forgive/ my lack of /courtesy/…A /poop/ load worse when the fit hits the shan." she concludes sternly. "Motley Flight, /dismissed/, get some rack time, guys, you've earned it. Captain? With your permission I'd like to go now." she says, barely controlling her sneer. "I've got proper work to be doing."

Phillip turns to observe Lt. Martin, Walsh and Paz.

James pulls his hand back after the handshakes are exchanged barely managing to suppress the urge to groan at the Tizona and Hellfire show. He lets his hand close to a loose fist as he begins to move towards the exit behind Paz keeping an eye out for any incoming punches aimed at him or Paz.

As the Lieutenant approaches, Walsh hastily wipes the partial smirk off his face and makes an attempt to at least straighten up a little. He's just starting to formulate an apology when Paz comes over, and he struggles to retain his straight face. In the aftermath, however, he does offer an apology to Helen. "I apologize. I spoke without thinking." Hopefully Paz has chastened Hellfire enough to avoid a second apology.

Lt. Martin pulls back from Walsh and turns her head toward Paz, face stern and eyes sharp. "Excuse me /Captain/, but that doesn't excuse a Confed pilot from calling another Confed pilot a 'bitch.'" She turns her head back at Walsh, "Apology accepted, but save your name-calling for the cats and scumbags." Just then Captain Cheswick races to get between Tizona and Hellfire, "Okay ladies, I think that is the enough. Points have been made. The rest of you can go, I would like have to have a word with Lt. Martin here." 2Lt. Amrita quickly scoots out of the room.

Paz fixes Martin with a /freezing/ glare and only backs down once her Captain rescues her. "Fair enough, Cap." she nods curtly, her eyes still boring a smoking hole into Martin's cranium. "Good flight."

Phillip immediately follows after the fleeing Elixir.

Paz pivots on her heel and marches out of the sim room, pausing only to smash her fist angrily into a carpeted wall on the way to the lift. "Para arriba pegada pequea princesa.La vez prxima, we' el ll est seguro de llamarle ms que una perra, usted entumece la concha." she growls as she boards the lift.

James follows along behind Paz his expression making it crystal clear that he doesn't have the slightest clue what she is saying.

Walsh realizes that he's been holding his breath, and exhales sharply. He thinks it best to get the hell out of dodge before he says something else stupid. He's actually relieved in a way though: Everyone threw their toys out of the sandbox for him calling her a bitch, but completely missed the white knight act that he was actually worried about. He slips out of the room as casually as he can.

As the other pilots leave, Captain Cheswick and Lt. Martin can be seen having a heated but low volume discussion near the simpods.